"The
beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed
until they try to take it."--Thomas Jefferson

By: Geoff Metcalf

Guess what? The Second
Amendment, ("A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
not be infringed.") has, does, and will secure "an individual
right to keep and bear arms."

You knew that. I
knew that. However, a cabal of leftists remains in denial over what even
their own Constitutional scholar had concluded.

Notwithstanding the
itching and moaning and gnashing of teeth from the left wing radical fringe,
it is an empirical fact that our God given inalienable right to keep and
bear arms is FACT.

The U.S. Department
of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel has officially concluded the Second
Amendment "secures an individual right to keep and bear arms."
Duh!

Despite having been
dated Aug. 24, the 93-page document was just released. 'Someone' delayed
the release for apparent political reasons. This is passing strange considering
even liberal democrats acknowledge one of the key components that cost
Al Gore his presidential dream was his having embraced the Chuck Schumer/Diane
Fienstein/Babs Boxer anti-gun mantra.

The belatedly released
research notes, "examination of the original meaning of the Amendment
provides extensive reasons to conclude that the Second Amendment secures
an individual right, and no persuasive basis for either the collective-right
or quasi-collective-right views."

As Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan M. Gottlieb observed, "Henceforth,
all Americans will know that the claim by anti-gunners that the Amendment
only protects some mythical right of the states to form militias and National
Guard units is an outright fraud."

Please note the 'allegedly
unbiased' mainstream hasn't said "Jack" about this epiphany.

Even, liberal darling
and Harvard Constitutional Law Professor Laurence Tribe acknowledged the
obvious in 1999 (and again the mainstream media silence was deafening).

Tribe is arguably
the most influential living American constitutional scholar. In 1999 he
concluded, "the federal government may not disarm individual
citizens without some unusually strong justification."

Tribe confirmed it
includes an individual right, "admittedly of uncertain scope,"
to "possess and use firearms in the defense of themselves and
their homes."

The personification
of the Metcalf Bromide of "Some people just don't want to be
confused with FACTS that contradict their preconceived opinions or prejudices."
Is, and has been, the ant-gun crowd.

In 2002 when a legal
brief was filed by the Justice Department declaring that this protection
extends to an individual's right to keep and bear arms irrespective of
their involvement in a state militia the gun control crowd threw a hissy
fit. Sonic wedgie time: "The worst fears about Attorney General Ashcroft
have come true: His extreme ideology on guns has now become government
policy." said Mike Barnes, president of the Brady Center to Prevent
Gun Violence.

Despite his extensive
liberal bona fides, Tribe (begrudgingly and belatedly) concluded that
the Constitution ensured to each American a right to "possess and
use firearms in defense of themselves and their homes."

The Second Amendment
never has meant 'Jack-spit' about bird hunting or target shooting. Such
leftist babble was disingenuous, duplicitous and an outrage to defend
the indefensible.

The fact is the Second
Amendment was specifically intended to provide American citizens with
the tools necessary to rise up and overthrow an abusive government. It
was written by men who had just done that very thing.

The first three battles
of the American Revolution were not about taxation, or representation,
or even the list of grievances delineated in the Declaration of Independence....the
first three battles of the War for Independence were over gun control
. When Captain Parker faced off the British on the Green in Lexington
it was to prevent the British from confiscating "power and ball".

"There should
be no doubt," Gottlieb concluded, "that those who have
campaigned for restrictive gun laws or outright gun bans have been working
to rob Americans of a constitutional right, a civil right. The time has
come for America to re-examine every restrictive federal and state firearms
statute, every local ordinance and every regulation, and start erasing
those that were written solely to infringe on the rights of individual,
law-abiding citizens to peaceably own firearms of their choice, without
ever again having to explain why." Despite his righteous indignation,
I hope Alan isn't holding his breath.

It was again Thomas
Jefferson who said, "The strongest reason for people to retain
the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themsleves
against tyranny in government."

Geoff
Metcalf is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host for Liberty Broadcasting
originating on 50,000 watt WMET in Washington D.C. He is a veteran media
performer with an eclectic professional background covering a wide spectrum
of radio, television, magazine, and newspapers. A former Green Beret and
retired Army officer he is in great demand as a speaker.